Newsroom

United Nations Africa Week Events

New York, Saturday October 18th, 2014:  The Global Partnerships Forum is privileged to report on two significant events held during the United Nations’ Africa Week, by our Partner Organisation, NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.  The programmes were coordinated under the astute leadership of Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of NEPAD.

The Business Forum on Africa’s Infrastructure Development, on Thursday, October 16th was co-hosted by the UN Global Compact at the United Nations.  The purpose of the forum was to engage the international private sector in public issues and to use partnerships to implement effective infrastructure projects.  The speakers noted that Africa’s continued economic growth will be hobbled if the inadequacies of the infrastructure are not addressed.  The event highlighted the top projects that were introduced at the Dakar Financing Summit, in Senegal in June 2014.  The projects aimed at achieving the common goals of eliminating the problems of infrastructure gaps, food insecurity, and other obstacles to national development and regional integration. 

The second event, the Launch of six reports on Africa's peace, security and development which NEPAD co-organized with the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA), the Office of the Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Department of Public Information (DPI) and the African Peer Review Mechanism Secretariat (APRM).  

In his remarks, Mr. Maged Abdelaziz, United Nations' Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Africa, highlighted the importance of specific roles that different actors must play in order to create a, “partnership whereby Governments provide the enabling environment, external development partners provide financing and technical support, and the micro financing institutions develop and deliver services and industries under the principals of the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action.”

Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of NEPAD, later noted that “One of the story lines which emerge from this Report shows that while agriculture in Africa has created more employment than in any other region of the world in the past decade, it should continue doing so but at the same time generate more programmes to create wealth and reduce gaps between rural and urban areas.”

The conclusions and findings in the Six Reports deliver crucial data to turn discussion into action and to set up a practical timeline to implement efficient strategies and to measure the progress accurately.  

The two events focused on advanced infrastructure as the center of any efforts to eliminate any obstacles in the way of Africa’s continued economic development.

To view the programme, please click here.

Copyrights © 2014 Global Partnerships Forum - created by theindivisuals.com